China urged to be more open with fishing catch

Researchers are calling on China to be more transparent in reporting the size and locations of its fishing catch.

China reports to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation that it catches an average of 368,000 tonnes each year, but scientists from Canada say the haul could be as much as 4.6 million tonnes.

Lead researcher Daniel Pauly told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat that because China doesn't provide clear reporting of its legal fishing catch, it is difficult to determine the overall size of its haul.

China's director of International Co-operation at the Bureau of Fisheries, Xiaobing Liu, confirmed last year it took 1.15 million tonnes.

"This is 3 or 4 times higher than they have up to now admitted," he said.

"This is contradictory, because the numbers they give to FAO don't have these figures.

"It cannot go on that China has absurd statistics - very high in their fishery domestically and very low in other countries."

The researchers say much of this haul comes from Africa, with significant fishing also in the Pacific, where there are huge tuna stocks.

Mr Pauly says there are concerns some foreign countries, including China and European nations, may be using international aid to gain access to those stocks.

He says Pacific nations have started taking steps to counteract that influence.

"The only way for the countries to get a better deal is to get together and team up and offer a closed front," he said.

"That is beginning to happen in the Pacific and it's not happening in Africa - so the conditions will be better in the Pacific."